Here's your ultimate guide to all the Easter eggs and callbacks in Frozen 2. Audiences have been waiting a long time for a sequel to the 2013 animated classic Frozen, and it's finally here. Set three years after the events of the first movie, Frozen 2 sees Anna and Elsa uncover the tragic secrets that lie in their family history. It's a darker sequel, and the ending forces both of the sisters to figure out their place in the world.
Returning directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee faced a massive challenge. They know that Frozen was one of the most dearly-loved animated movies of all time, with the scale of its success taking even Disney by surprise. As a result, they've created a sequel that lovingly reinterprets the original blockbuster hit, while carefully evoking a sense of nostalgia through use of callbacks and Easter eggs.
Naturally, that means fans are currently poring over Frozen 2, checking out every detail for a deeper meaning. We've gone through with a fine tooth-comb so you don't have to, spotting every Easter egg and callback in the movie. Did you spot them all?
14. Mattea Conforti Was In Broadway's Frozen
The first Frozen was an unexpected hit, grossing $1.2 billion in the global box office, and it didn't take long for Disney to adapt the film into a Broadway musical. This opened in 2018, and earned three major Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Musical. One of the co-stars was Mattea Conforti, a young actress who played Anna on the Broadway stage. Appropriately, Frozen 2 sees the teenager join Disney Animation as the voice of young Elsa. She's now gotten to play both sisters.
13. Young Elsa's Magical Toys
Who needs to buy Disney merch when you can just make your own? Young Elsa is shown using her ice powers in a creative way, fashioning ice toys for the sisters to play with. Look closely and you'll spot a couple of very distinctive ice dolls. For example, there's a little elephant with a long trunk and oversized ears - clearly supposed to be Dumbo. There's a hulking, rounded figure that looks just like Baymax from Big Hero 6. The most surprising of these is a monster Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro, a Studio Ghibli production that was distributed by Disney back in 1988. Who knows, maybe Frozen 2 will inspire a whole new range of Disney ice toys?
12. A Nod To Hans Christian Andersen
The Frozen films are very loosely based on the writings of Hans Christian Andersen. He was a 19th century Danish author, responsible for writing fairytales such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, and of course The Snow Queen. Frozen was originally supposed to be the origin story of Andersen's villain, with Elsa transforming into the Snow Queen at the end, but of course the movie ultimately took a different path. Appropriately enough, there's a subtle nod to Andersen in the opening flashback in Frozen 2, when Elsa's father mentions getting a book by a new Danish author.
11. The Gates Are Open Wide
Frozen 2 is set three years after the first film, and the sisters' lives have changed radically. The key difference is signposted in early dialogue when Anna says "the gates are open wide." It's an amusing callback to Frozen, when the gates of Arendelle were finally flung open on the day of Elsa's coronation. This forced the sisters to reconcile with one another, with Elsa's ice powers becoming public knowledge, and they also welcomed Kristoff and Sven into their lives.
10. The "Hidden Mickeys" Of Frozen II
Disney theme parks are famous for their "Hidden Mickeys," three black circles that define the shape of Mickey's head and two ears. There was a subtle Hidden Mickey in the first Frozen - barely visible in Oaken's trading post - and the animators chose to put a couple into Frozen 2 as well. During the game of charades, Olaf cycles through several poses, and at one point he's trying to represent the word "Mouse." He takes on a very familiar shape. Later, when Elsa sings "Into the Unknown," she manifests her power in a Mickey silhouette for a moment as well.
9. Prince Hans The Villain
One thing's for sure; the villainous Hans certainly left an impression on Elsa and Anna after he broke Anna's heart in Frozen. During the same charades game, he's the person they think of in order to represent a villain. When Anna rattles off her achievements, she builds to a climax in which she mentions him. "Excuse me, I climbed the North Mountain, survived a frozen heart and saved you from my ex-boyfriend," she insists, reminding Elsa that she's not helpless just because she doesn't have magic. Later, in Ahtohallan, Elsa walks through her memories and angrily shatters an ice model of Hans.
8. A Very Familiar Knock On The Door
The charades are disrupted when Elsa hears the mysterious siren's voice calling to her, and she ends up retreating into her room. That leads to history repeating itself when Anna pursues Elsa, knocking on the door in exactly the same way she did in "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" Again, signifying the difference three years have made to the sisters' lives, this time she's able to walk right in after knocking.
7. Olaf On The Road Trip
Road trip! The Frozen gang hit the road in a reindeer-drawn cart, with Olaf trying to pass the time with a seemingly endless list of facts he's picked up - or, at least, things he believes to be facts. The scene is lifted from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, in which Jerry (Tom Cruise) and Dorothy (Renee Zellweger) patiently listen to Dorothy's son rattle off trivia. Suffice to say Elsa and Anna aren't quite so patient, and they're soon encouraging Olaf to pipe down. The journey north takes the group through the mountains, and eagle-eyed viewers will notice that they pass close to Elsa's ice palace from Frozen.
6. Why Anna Recognizes Mattias From A Painting
In the Enchanted Forest, Elsa and Anna meat Lieutenant Mattias, who was King Agnarr's personal guard 34 years ago. Amusingly, Anna recognizes Mattias because she's seen his painting hanging in the library inside Arendelle Castle. Viewers will remember that Anna spent years roaming the castle in boredom, and even started talking to the pictures on the wall. No wonder she recognizes Mattias; nobody knows those paintings better than Anna.
5. A Surprising Nod To Pixar's Never-Released Film, Newt
Bruni, the fire spirit, is a playful and friendly elemental who loves to have his flames doused by the cold. But his design is also a rather surprising Easter egg, because he's clearly inspired by the canceled Pixar film newt. This was intended to be Gary Rydstrom's directorial debut in a full-length theatrical, set on a planet where the last remaining newts were forced together to save the species. It's generally believed Disney pulled the project because it was too similar to Fox's Rio, and it's been referenced several times, including in Toy Story 3 and Brave. Still, Bruni is the most notable use of the newt designs to date.
4. Kristoff's 80s Power Ballad
Kristoff spends most of Frozen 2 attempting to ask Anna to marry him, an entertaining sub-plot in which two socially awkward people try to make their relationship work. In the end, Kristoff's frustration leads to a brief reprise of "Reindeers Are Better Than People," before he shifts to his hotly-anticipated new song "Lost In The Woods." It's an '80s power ballad, complete with animations that evoke memories of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, and Kristoff voice actor Jonathon Groff was delighted by it. "The brilliance of the animators can’t be overstated," he told Variety. "When I saw the hair flip and the singing into the pinecone. The Queen references to Bohemian Rhapsody with the reindeer, the sort of emotional walking, even like the supertight close-up on the face. I just lost my mind." Hilariously, Groff actually voiced the entire reindeer chorus as well, meaning he was recorded singing 18 different times.
3. Elsa Isn't A Fan Of "Let It Go!"
Of course, Frozen is best known for its iconic song "Let It Go," which took the world by storm. Sung by Idina Menzel, it sold 10.9 million copies in 2014, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. It became a victim of its own success, and in the end director Jennifer Lee apologized to parents driven insane by the unforgettable tune. It's appropriate, then, that Elsa cringes when she walks past a memory of her singing "Let It Go." In-universe, it speaks to Elsa's growth and maturity; out of universe, she speaks for all those parents and even for Lee herself.
2. The Death Of Olaf
Elsa plunges too deep into her memories while visiting Ahtohallan, and as a result she turns to ice. That seems to have a devastating effect, with all of her magic undone, and Olaf crumbles into snowdust. The animation sequence is reminiscent of Spider-Man's death in Avengers: Infinity War, when he crumbled to dust and was given a last hug by Tony Stark. In this case, it's made all the more poignant by the fact that Olaf has always liked warm hugs. Thankfully, just like Spider-Man in the MCU, Olaf's death isn't final. Appropriately enough, when a restored Elsa decides it's time to bring Olaf back she opens with a very familiar line: "Do you want to build a snowman?"
1. Frozen II's Post-Credits Scene
Finally, Frozen 2's post-credits scene reveals that Elsa has brought back all the magical creatures she'd previously created. Olaf is shown dramatically retelling the story of Frozen 2, and it's eventually revealed that his audience are Marshmallow the ice giant from Frozen and the ice germs introduced in Frozen Fever. Marshmallow is understandably delighted by Olaf's tale, celebrating the fact they're all alive again. What's more, all these ice creatures appear to have settled in Ahtohallan with Elsa..